Jeremiah 8:4

Willful Disregard of God Will Lead to Destruction

8:4 The Lord said to me, ¹ 

“Tell them, ‘The Lord says,

Do people not get back up when they fall down?

Do they not turn around when they go the wrong way? ² 

Jeremiah 23:21

23:21 I did not send those prophets.

Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. ³ 

I did not tell them anything.

Yet they prophesied anyway.

[8:4]  ¹ tn The words “the Lord said to me” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation to make clear who is speaking and who is being addressed.

[8:4]  ² sn There is a play on two different nuances of the same Hebrew word that means “turn” and “return,” “turn away” and “turn back.”

[23:21]  ³ tn Heb “Yet they ran.”